27 March 2024
We spent our first day back in Taiwan exploring the small settlement of Fenchihu or Fenqihu (奮起湖) that was once a refuel middle stop for the old Alishan forest trains. Although the name implied that there is a lake (湖) nearby, there is actually no lake in the vicinity.
A vintage Alishan Forest Railway train at Fenqihu Station.
The name comes from how mountains surround the town on three sides, forming a “dustpan” which the town sits in. The Taiwanese Hokkien term for dustpan sounds like Pùn-ki-ôo (ôo sounds like 湖). Anyway, the town is best known for 3 things – a mountain town surrounded by bamboo and cedar forest, the old shopping street and the historic Alishan forest railway.
Fenqihu is located 1400 meters above sea level making it a nice cool place to visit during the hot season in Taiwan. It could also be misty or foggy as the clouds rolled onto this mountain town.
Getting to Fenqihu!
The traditional way to get to the town is by the popular Forest Railway from Chiayi Train Station that runs only once a day (twice on weekends). The journey on the narrow gauge historic train takes about 2 hours and is often fully booked out. A slightly faster way is by taking one of infrequent public buses from the TRA or HSR train stations in Chiayi.
The fastest way is by car. Since we did not rent a car, we took the next best option which was to charter a taxi using Tripool that took us from the Chiayi High Speed Rail (HSR) Station to Fenqihu.
We arrived at Fenqihu slightly before 11 AM. Earlier in the day, we had taken a red-eye flight from Singapore to the Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport arriving as scheduled at dawn. Everything went perfectly as planned during our travel from the airport to Fenqihu by a combination of MRT to the Taoyuan HSR Station, HSR train to Chiayi and pre-booked taxi to Fenqihu.
Where we stayed
En-route, we made a short stop at the Siang Ting B&B (頂石桌湘庭民宿), located amongst the tea plantations in Shizhuo (石棹). This is to drop off our luggage as it was too early for check in. We planned to take the public bus back to the Shizhuo after exploring Fenqihu.
Shizhuo is located along the Alishan Highway leading to the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area and is only 10 minutes drive from Fenqihu. We are staying at Shizhuo for 3 nights. This is an ideal place to stay and explore the area surrounding Alishan.
The taxi dropped us off near the Fenqihu Bus Station. As the public bus is infrequent and there is few or no taxi to hail, it is prudent to recce the location of the bus stops and confirm the bus timings for our return trip to Shizhuo.
Fenqihu Bento boxes for lunch
Since we did not have a decent breakfast, we went to look for the places that serve the famous Fenqihu bento boxes. The Fenqihu bento lunchbox is a “must try” in this old town.
Fenqihu has been the primary midpoint stop of the Alishan Forest Railway that was built by the Japanese in 1912 to haul timber down from the Alishan Mountain. Trains running up or down the line in the old days reached Fenqihu at about lunch time and while the locomotives were taking on coal and water, the passengers used to the time to satisfy their hunger! Hence, the birth of the Fenqihu Bento lunchboxes.
There are quite a few places selling these lunch boxes ranging from 100 TWD to 170 TWD, depending on the quality and amount of protein inside.
The most popular or famous bento lunchbox is sold at the Fenqihu Hotel. Although the prices are amongst the highest (160 to 180 TWD), the food is still value for money.
We ordered a chicken bento set and a pork bento set to share. Soup with pieces of ginger is self served, free of charge but is almost tasteless.
Each bento at the Fenqihu Hotel came in a traditional metal box with lid. You could even bring the metal box home as a souvenir if you are willing to pay for it.
Once opened, it reveals a large piece of the selected protein sitting on a bed of steamed rice topped with crunchy fried cabbage, bamboo shoots, and strings of red chewy stuff that taste like tofu and half braised egg (should be a whole egg, come on!).
Chicken Bento and Pork Bento from the Fenqihu Hotel. The free soup is self served using paper cups.
The soft roast pork bento is their specialty, with traditional secret recipe passed down through the family for 80 years.
According to the above signage, the 1.5 cm thick tomahawk pork is cooked with simple ingredients such as sugar, soy sauce and garlic. The result is soft roasted pork that perfectly presents three levels of texture (chewy, soft and tender) with salty and sweet taste of soy sauce and sugar with fragrant garlic sauce, creating a unique local taste for Taiwanese people. I must say, the pork is deliciously good.
We came early, before the forest railway train from Chiayi arrives, so we practically had the whole eating area to ourselves. We took our time to enjoy our food and snap some photos.
Eating area inside the Fenqihu Hotel with tables and chairs made from timber that are abundant in the area.
Recycling bins for the metal boxes, chopsticks, general waste and food waste.
After lunch, we took some time to explore the lobby of the Fenqihu Hotel and see some unique artifacts. These include wooden clogs of all sizes and an antique bridal carriage.
A pair of giant wooden clogs.
A row of clogs with messages from guests of the hotel hanging from the ceiling.
Fenqihu Old Street (奮起湖老街)
Hunger satisfied, we went to explore the old street.
The old street is only 500 meters in length and runs almost parallel to the railway line. Part of the street is covered while most are uncovered.
The cool mountain air made exploring the shops that lined both sides of the street a very pleasant experience.
Beside the bento boxes, there are also various local delicacies to try, including the Aiyu jelly drink. The Aiyu is the gel extracted from the seeds on the surface of a type of fig first discovered in Chiayi, the county that Fenqihu & Alishan is in.
After lunch, the iced Aiyu jelly is a good choice. We drank one that is served in a cup together with calamansi lime. Refreshing but we could not really figure out the flavour from the Aiyu seeds.
Open-air part of Fenqihu Old Street lines with shops and red lanterns.
The shops had many small toys and trinkets for sale, many of which were made of wood.
Murals of historic trains along the Old Street. 
There are many vendors selling locally-grown tea and coffee.
The friendly but not pushy sales persons manning the stalls and stores often offers us samples of their goodies to try before buying. Before we know it, we were lugging bags of wasabi-flavoured snacks, Alishan high mountain oolong tea, black sesame-flavoured snacks, dried dates, candied nuts and even a wooden toy train for our grandson.
One friendly store owner even offered to keep our loot safe in their shop so we could buy more and yet explore the area hands-free until the end of day. Offered was gladly accepted.
What we bought at the Old Street!
A grove with square bamboo, next to the Fenqihu Station.
We went to the Fenqihu Railway Station located above the old street but the train from Chiayi had already departed. Since the train is infrequent, we are free to walk on the tracks.
Clouds were rolling in while we crossed the tracks to the bamboo forest.
The misty looking scenes are common in the Alishan area.
Located diagonally across from the train station is a bamboo forest with some very unique bamboo. Most bamboos have round or circular stems. The cross section of the Fenqihu bamboo stems is actually square with rounded edges. Also they are much more slender. It was not very easy to discern the square cross section of the bamboo by sight.
These bamboos originated from Mount Emei in Sichuan, China. After being introduced to Japan, they were then brought by the Japanese to Taiwan in 1924 and could only found in Xitou and Fenqihu where square bamboos were first grown.
I took pictures of the square bamboo but the photos do not show the square form distinctively.
Hiking around Fenqihu – Cedar Boardwalk and Old Logging trail
Fenqihu has numerous hiking trails surrounding the town, collectively known as the Fenqihu Trail System. My wife and I both enjoyed hiking in our oversea trips. After viewing the bamboo forest, we proceeded to hike on some of the trails surrounding Fenqihu.
Signboard showing the trails around Fenqihu.
From the bamboo grove, we went to hike the 2 km long Cedar Boardwalk Trail first. Cedar Boardwalk (杉林棧道) is on the south side of Fenqihu. This is a trail known for the tall cedars and various ecological sights.
From the bamboo grove, we followed a steep slope down to the Earth God Temple (土地公庙). The temple is small but well adorned with decorations on the roof. There was nobody except us in this quiet part of town.
Crossing the tracks again in the misty cool weather.
The trails are well marked with signage like this.
The terrain around Fenqihu is quite hilly and there are some stairs leading down to the Cedar Boardwalk from the temple.
There were not many hikers on this day. The weather was nice and cool, although a bit humid due to the clouds rolling onto the mountain.
Well maintained boardwalk made the hike easy. No need for hiking shoes and poles.
More stairs! The Cedar Boardwalk trail has some ups and downs but it is worth the hike.
Misty cedar forest.
Bird-nest ferns perched high up on the almost vertical trunks of the cedar trees. Apparently the young shoots of this fern is harvested and served as a vegetable dish in Taiwanese restaurants.
After walking a bit on the trail, we decided to U-turn and head back towards the town again.
As we were exiting the trail, we came across a hut, painted bright blue.
Apparently this hut was featured in the Taiwanese movie called Starry Starry Night.
Yummy snacks to eat at Fenqihu
A treat awaited us at the exit of the Cedar Boardwalk trail. Freshly made donut is one of the yummy snacks to try while in Fenqihu. Although there are a few stalls selling the donut snack, the Bai-nian-gui-mu’s (百年檜木) doughnuts is best known.
Each donut costs 25 TWD and one is not enough because it is so good. We decided to buy 4 donuts for the two of us.
“Buy 10 pieces for 250 TWD get 1 free”, says the sign. We saw many people buying boxes of the donuts to bring home.
We found a place to sit, amongst the tall trees that is probably at least a hundred years old, to finish our delicious donuts.
Walking up the slope towards the old street, we came across another popular stall on a side road selling another highly recommended local delicacy - the glutinous rice cake from the Grandma's Caozaiguo (阿嬤 草仔粿).
The rice cakes are offered with different fillings to choose from. They are all served for takeaway in plastic bags.
We bought this flavour. Surprisingly it is still warm in the cold weather. A testimony as to how fast the food flies off the shelf.
The overall taste of this homemade rice cake is simply yummy. It has a chewy texture like a mochi, not overly sweet and packed with savoury ingredients for only 40 TWD each.
Apparently Alishan is famous not on for its high mountain oolong tea but coffee too. We took a pit stop at a cafe located at the top of the slope. This cafe (奮起湖山嵐小築) is also a B&B offering home stays.
This cafe sells quite expensive Alishan Champion Coffee. 360 TWD for a cup and this was not the most expensive option on the menu.
The lady boss was also very friendly. She let us smelled the coffee powder before proceeding to make the drip coffee. She also gave us a page with information on the different coffees and notes on how to taste it. Unfortunately, it was in Chinese but I used Google Translate to read it.
The view of the mountains from the cafe was nice.
A cherry tree right in front but the tree has passed its peak.
We ordered a cinnamon bun (100 TWD) to go with our coffee. The lady boss actually told us to eat our bun first, washed our palette with the plain water before tasting the coffee.
Overall, the coffee was good but I would probably not pay so much for a cup of coffee again in Taiwan.
Old Old Street of Fenqihu
We saw signs indicating an Old Old Street and decided to go explore. From the coffee shop, we walked downhill, passed the donut stall and continued following the signs to the Old Old Street of Fenqihu (奮起湖老老街).
We soon saw the entrance to the Old Old Street.
Red lanterns with the words “奮起湖老老街 ” meaning “Fenqihu Old Old Street” printed on them.
There are old houses and shops with posters of celebrities of the yesteryears. These shops gave a nostalgic feel to the place. It is “dead“ street compared to the more lively Old Street next to the train station.
All the shops, except for one selling snacks, were closed. The old man manning the stall was trying his best but we told him we had already bought the snacks.
From there, we had to trudge our way back up to the train station.
The Amaryllis seemed to be the flower of the season. We saw many houses with pots of colourful amaryllis blooming on the front porch or gardens.
Tip: We should have continued our hike along the Cedar Boardwalk trail where the southern exit leads to this Old Old Street.
Fenqihu Forest Railway
The highlight of Fenqihu would be the train station and the trains. The Alishan Forest Railway trains are usually with red livery.
Typical Alishan Forest Railway train at Fenqihu.
We were just in time to see a unique train with blue, white and yellow livery when we came back to the station . This is the "Vivid Express," a new tourist train on the Alishan Forest Railway that is set to launch in May 2024. The colour scheme is inspired by the collared bush robin, a bird species endemic to Taiwan.
The Vivid Express train with blue, white and yellow livery at the Fenqihu Railway Station.
We joined the crowds gathered around the train. Some were on the tracks, snapping photos of this train.
We took a sneak peek at the insides of this train from the extra wide glass windows. The interior has a warm yellow ambiance, with plush, swivel seats that faced the windows, a key characteristic of a sight-seeing train. Some cabins have seats that faced each other with tables in between for family groups.
The blue train soon departed and it was around 2 PM when the usual Alishan Forest Railway train in red livery arrived at the station from Duolin. This train made a brief stop at Fenqihu before making its way down the mountain to Chiayi city.
Hiking around Fenqihu – the Wooden Horse Logging trail (木馬棧道)
After viewing the trains, we went for our second hike of the day. This time, we went to the Old Logging Trail (木馬棧道) located across the railway station, on the opposite side of the Cedar Boardwalk Trail.
Signage marking the start of the Logging Track. The ruins of a Shinto Shrine and the verdant forest are near this but we did not go explore.
A unique part of this trail is the wooden “tracks” on the path.
A sign explains the origin of the “tracks” and the name of the trail.
"When the Japanese built the Fenqihu section of the Alishan Railroad, they used timber from neighboring forests for cross-ties and other materials. The logs were at first transported manually, but as the closest forests were depleted and the source of timber became more distant, waste wood was used to build tracks along which logs were at first pulled and later transported on sledges called "wooden horses." These were operated by two-person teams (mostly husband and wife), with one person steering the sledge in the front and the other pulling the back in the rear to keep the sledge from going too fast downhill."
We covered only a short section of this trail. By now, our lack of sleep from our red-eye flight was taking effect and we craved for some hot drinks.
So we made a return to the Old Street to get a cup of hot Alishan tea and waited for the 5 PM bus that will take us back to Shizhuo. This is the last bus (number 7302) that leaves Fenqihu for Chiayi, passing by Shizhuo.
Dinner at Shizhuo.
It was a short ride from Fenqihu to Shizhuo. Payment of the bus fare is by tapping the Easycard on the IC card reader on the bus.
At Shizhuo, we went to recce the bus stop to take note of the bus schedule for our next day’s trip from Shizhuo to Alishan National Forest Recreation Area.
Shizhuo in the evening. The bus stop to Alishan is just opposite the 7-eleven store.
Most of the B&Bs in and around Shizhuo do not offer meals except breakfast. There were a few restaurants serving dinner at Shizhuo. Most of them would be closed by 7 PM. We went to a restaurant (石桌佳味熱炒) serving local Taiwanese food.
We ordered the set dinner for 2 persons that cost 600 TWD. We mistakenly thought that the set meal included the deep fried bitter tea oil chicken, a dish that was highly raved by reviewers.
A tea oil chicken hotpot soup was served instead. It was our mistake in not reading and understanding the Chinese text in the menu.
The rest of the dishes in the set menu were not bad.
Cold tofu with a delicious wasabi sauce. This is another signature dish in Shizhuo.
During dinner, I received a call from Jun Qi, the host from Siang Ting B&B, enquiring where we were. There are many tea farms, including Siang Ting B&B, located high up on the slopes above Shizhuo town that offered homestay. He offered to pick us from the restaurant after our dinner. We gladly accepted. Otherwise, it would be a 20 to 30 minutes trek uphill to our accommodation.